‘Finger’ bananas make appealing lumpia

Living in Hawaii gives us easy access to a good variety of bananas: From the Cavendish group of bananas come Williams, Valery, Hamakua, Grand Nain and Chinese varieties; the Brazillian group gives us the varieties we call "apple" bananas. Starchy cooking bananas, or plantains, are also found here, with names of Largo, Maia maole and Popoulu. (All these names come courtesy of a Web site called "Knowledge Master," maintained by the University of Hawaii's Extension Entomology and Integrated Pest Management programs.)

A new kind of banana showing up in Chinatown and at several farmers' markets is the "finger" or "baby" banana, with a taste and texture more like the Cavendish bananas. These little bananas are the perfect snack size for keiki -- no more half-eaten bananas to deal with.

We wondered how they would work in our banana lumpia recipe -- their small size would eliminate the need for cutting the bananas in thirds or halves as the recipe instructs.

Julia Cabatu, one of our retired home economists, always recommends using apple or plantain bananas in lumpia. The Cavendish varieties, she said, sometimes pop or "explode" while cooking, and the texture, after frying, tends to get mushy.

So we tested our recipe using baby bananas and were relieved when none of the lumpia exploded. But how was the taste and texture? We all gave it a "thumbs up!"